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Day 9 rewind: Serbs sent packing

Tuesday, 21 January, 2014By Darren Saligari

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A glimpse of the future and another strong performance from a seasoned campaigner was the story of the women's quarterfinals played on Tuesday.

Rewind 12 months and Canadian Eugenie Bouchard was a name not widely known outside of the tennis world. Then just 18 years old and ranked No.145 in the world, she contested the qualifying event, losing in the second round.

Over the next 12 months she slashed more than 110 spots off her ranking and was named the WTA's Newcomer of the Year.

Before this week Bouchard's best result at a major was a third-round effort at Wimbledon where, coincidentally, she beat Serbian star Ana Ivanovic in the second round, the very player she also beat today.

Seeded 14th, a former Australian Open finalist and a Grand Slam title winner at Roland Garros, Ivanovic was the favourite leading into today's match with Bouchard. Her defeat of top seed Serena Williams still fresh, Ivanovic was in the box seat to make it to the semis.

But Bouchard, showing a level of composure you'd expect from a seasoned veteran pulled off a significant 5-7 7-5 6-2 upset to make it to the semis in just her fourth ever main draw appearance at a major.

Next up, she will take on Li Na, who was a finalist here in 2013 and 2011. Today, Li turned in a commanding performance to defeat 28th seed Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-2.

Since saving a match point in her third-round match with Lucie Safarova, Li has barely put a foot wrong. And today was no exception.

Li converted five of eight break-point opportunities and hit 23 winners compared with 17 unforced errors. Pennetta's numbers just don't stack up – just one of four break points were converted and her 14-27 winner to unforced error ratio was sorely out of balance.

On the men's side, seventh seed Tomas Berdych put a stop to third seed David Ferrer's tournament in four sets, 6-1 6-4 2-6 6-4.

By making it to the semis in Melbourne, Berdych can now say he has made it to the semifinals at all of the world's four Grand Slams tournaments.

A two-time semifinalist here, Ferrer held a 7-4 head-to-head advantage over Berdych before today's match. But Big Berd had his revenge as he coolly hit tennis's best-known road runner off the court.

Berdych's next mission will not be an easy one. Stanislas Wawrinka.

Wawrinka defeated four-time champion Novak Djokovic and put an end to his 25-match winning streak in a Rod Laver Arena special on Tuesday night, winning 2-6 6-4 6-2 3-6 9-7.

It was a match that saw the momentum shift on several occasions between the four-time champion and the eighth seed.

Djokovic has had incredible success in Melbourne but Wawrinka has played some of his best tennis here too.

Still searching for his first major, indeed his first ever Grand Slam tournament final, Wawrinka played inspired tennis to secure the victory.

Just like we’ve seen in the women’s draw, anyone can win and come finals day who knows who will be left standing?

It’ll be a long drive home for …Novak Djokovic. How many people saw this coming? Wawrinka gets his revenge on Djokovic who defeated him in a classic last year.

What did you say?“It was nothing. I have the towel there. It was nervous moment, but nothing. I say to him excuse me after that. Nothing special.” David Ferrer on that brush with the linesperson.